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Terror attacks are against civilian targets - hence terrorizing civilians. An attack like this is military - which could be carried out by terrorists or a govt

• cyberscientist 6y ago
  Like your mental gymnastics. If Iran carries out such attacks on Israeli installations, who do have nuclear weapons. We would be framing it as terrorist attack. I think the narrative build that Iran is evil and Israel is devine only allows one side to do what they want till full blown out war breaks out.
• whimsicalism 6y ago
  Both Iran and Israel carry out rogue bombing and assassinations targeting civilians. This is in contrast to the MO of most of Europe and even the United States.
• pcbro141 6y ago
  Are nuclear scientists civilians? Would it be acceptable for Iran to assassinate Israeli nuclear scientists in Israel?
  • ars 6y ago
    Nuclear scientists are not civilians, unless their work is entirely theoretical, without connection to actually building something. > Would it be acceptable for Iran to assassinate Israeli nuclear scientists in Israel? Acceptable? No. Terrorism? Also no. A military attack is a thing you know. Not everything is terrorism.
    • pcbro141 6y ago
      I think it's a little murky given that they're not officially at war. Anti-terrorism conventions define terrorism as explicitly including unlawful killings with the intent to intimidate a population, or to compel a government or an international organization to do or to abstain from doing any act.
      • ars 6y ago
        Terrorism always involves an attack on civilians. An attack on a military facility could be an act of war, but never terrorism.
        • pcbro141 6y ago
          The scientist I'm referring to (Mohsen Fakhrizadeh) was not killed as part of a legitimate strike on a military facility, he was killed in his car with his wife sitting in the seat next to him, on a road with many civilians around. I am doubtful that Iranian agents doing these same actions to scientists in the US or Israel on the street would be considered a legitimate military action and not terrorism.
          • ars 6y ago
            > The scientist I'm referring to (Mohsen Fakhrizadeh) was not killed as part of a legitimate strike on a military facility, he was killed in his car with his wife sitting in the seat next to him, on a road with many civilians around. What are you talking about "facility"? The human, named Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, was a military target, since he was the head of the nuclear weapons program in Iran. I'm unclear what the relevance of "many civilians around". Do you imagine military targets are always isolated with never any civilians near them? > I am doubtful that Iranian agents doing these same actions to scientists in the US or Israel on the street would be considered a legitimate military action and not terrorism. A scientist in the US or Israel working on developing a nuclear weapon would be a military target. Why does this surprise you? There's a reason you don't know the names of any scientists in the US or Israel working on nuclear weapons: They would instantly become targets. Do you imagine war is some kind of game where everyone is like "it's my turn now", and there's a referee?
            • dang 6y ago
              You have a long history of posting flamewar comments to HN. Would you please stop doing that? I've banned a whole bunch of accounts on both sides of this hellish thread, and it's dismaying to see a long-established account like yours getting in there and dragging things deeper into hell along with all the trolls. This is not what HN is supposed to be for. Surely you know that. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
• dagenleg 6y ago
  What about the assassinations of Iranian scientists? Are they also "military" targets?
  • nullserver 6y ago
    Yes absolutely.
    • cyberscientist 6y ago
      Not if Iran does it. If they do it, it's a cowardly act of terrorism.